ROM the beginning of his Presidential career in New York city Washington exercised each day in the open air, sometimes on horseback, then in his chariot or post-chaise, and often walked for an hour or two. The little city that posed before the world as the capital of the new nation, rejoiced in his stately presence--was literally enraptured with undisguised admiration.

The New York of 1789 was but a mere speck on the map in comparison with the New York of 1889. The Brick Church, with its little grave-yard in front, then standing on the site of the old building of the New York Times, was at the upper limits of the city proper; a smooth, clear, beautiful, miniature inland sea, sixty feet deep, known as Fresh Water Pond, spread over nearly four blocks of territory in the vicinity of the Tombs in Centre Street; while a series of swampy fields to the northwest, in the region of what is now Canal Street to the Hudson River, gave little promise of future value. At a club dinner in the winter of that year, some imaginative individual incurred overwhelming ridicule by suggesting the propriety of purchasing the pond for a prospective park! Capitalists had no faith in any wild visionary scheme of that character; New York city, in their judgment, would never have occasion to extend itself thus far into the country. Water was supplied to the citizens from the old Tea Water Pump, near the head of Pearl Street, in water-carts which paraded the streets daily, selling "good fresh drinking water" at so much per cask or gallon. Milkmen, with yokes on their shoulders from which tin cans were suspended, traversed the town in the early morning shouting, “milk, ho!" Negro boys went their rounds about the same hour seeking chimneys to sweep. Hickory wood was the principal article of fuel, and woodsawing paraphernalia ornamented the street corners and other convenient places at all hours of the day. Every citizen attended to the sweeping of the street in front of his house twice a week; and in the evening the

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principal thoroughfares were lighted with oil lamps. The city itself had a unique appearance. Antique churches with moss-covered roofs and grassy church-yards, dwelling-houses of all sizes and varieties, small hotels, stores, gardens, blacksmiths' shops, great ware-houses, trees, trailing vines, rosebushes, and markets, flourished in neighborly juxtaposition. Every New York family of any pretension to affluence owned slaves-in all the newspapers of the day advertisements may be noticed of negroes for sale, and of runaways. The community embraced many excellent, well-educated, and highly cultivated people, as well as the most diverse elements from other places and countries. The first congress added to the population its group of heroic statesmen who were to make the age illustrious.

The infant republic was marvelously interesting even while it was learning to walk, and the city in which it was cradled, petted and nourished it with intense pride. Republicanism was a novelty, and some very extraordinary expectations prevailed. There never had been a President before, on this continent, nor any chief magistrate of the people. It was popularly supposed that he would be accessible at all times to all citizens. The throngs were self-respectful, as if under the spell of some powerful fascination, whenever Washington rode or walked in the streets. He was not followed nor his movements obstructed, as far as can be learned, by rude sight-seeing mobs. But the public knew exactly when he left his house each day, which direction he took for his outing, and when he returned home-and the rush to gain admittance to an interview, the besieging of his door, was the first serious difficulty he encountered. He believed it his duty to see every caller on proper occasions and for reasonable purposes. But he had work before him, and must secure time to accomplish it. To establish a system of special days for receptions was a delicate undertaking. John Adams, who had seen much of foreign courts, was inclined to chamberlains and masters of ceremony; John Jay was anxious to do away with the flavor of courts, and favored “republican simplicity;" Alexander Hamilton was for maintaining the dignity of the presidential office, but recommended the utmost caution lest too high a tone shock the popular notions of equality. All felt that confused theories must not be roughly jarred. Washington finally appointed Tuesday afternoons from three o'clock until four for the reception of visits of courtesy. No invitations were extended, guests came and retired at their pleasure. A servant conducted them to the drawing-room, where Washington stood. He writes of this ceremony: "At their first entrance they salute me and I them, and as many as I can I talk to. Gentlemen often in great numbers come and go; chat with each other, and act as

they please." Persons who wished to see him on business were admitted on any day of the week; and foreign ambassadors and official characters could see him at any time by appointment.

Meanwhile he applied himself to the study of the actual condition of foreign and domestic affairs. He industriously read all the correspondence that had accumulated since the close of the war, and one notable feature of his lessons was to produce with his own hand abstracts of the reports of the secretaries, and of the treasury commissions, in order to impress facts more accurately upon his memory, and thereby enable him to master all the subjects in detail.

He also looked after his household concerns the arrangement of furniture, the hanging of pictures, and the locating of vases, bric-à-brac, china, cut glass, silverware, and linen, which Mrs. Washington had sent by sea from Mount Vernon-with as much precision as he ever directed his farmer or steward how to plough, plant seed, buy nails, scissors, grains, gloves, buttons, shingles, hats, dishes, soap, hoes, rakes, horses, and other necessaries, all of which appears in his well-known hand-writing among the 117 folio volumes of "Washington Papers," in the State Department at Washington.

While he was thus variously employed Mrs. Washington was setting her house in order at Mount Vernon for a protracted absence, and in the course of four weeks had made the journey to New York in her own carriage, accompanied by her two grand-children, Nelly and George Washington Parke Custis, the latter then eight years of age. These children appear in our beautiful frontispiece, a picture for which the reader is indebted to the collection and the never-failing courtesy of Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet. Mrs. Washington missed the great ball on the 7th of May, but on the 29th of that month she held her first reception, or levee, as it was styled, which was attended by all that was distinguished in official and fashionable society. She had approached New York with a retinue of attendants, and been greeted continuously on the way by the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the wise and the simple, receiving scarcely less homage than that accorded to Washington himself. From Philadelphia she was accompanied by Mrs. Robert Morris, and at "Liberty Hall," the home of ex-Governor William Livingston, in Elizabeth, she was met by Mrs. John Jay. She spent the night there, and in the morning early President Washington, John Jay, and Robert Morris, and other prominent characters, arrived to breakfast with her and her host and hostess, in the old historic dwelling, and then the whole party set out for New York. New York Bay presented a similar scene to that witnessed on the day of

tone.

Washington's memorable reception. No foreign queen was ever welcomed by a loving people with more genuine delight. Unconsciously as it were polite intercourse with the President and Mrs. Washington assumed a high The intellectual and the cultivated, as well as the diplomatic, political and the fashionable visited them familiarly. On the evening prior to Mrs. Washington's first reception the following gentlemen dined informally at the President's table: Vice-President John Adams, Governor George Clinton, Secretary John Jay, the French minister De Moustier, the Spanish minister Gardoqui, Governor Arthur St. Clair of the Northwest territory, Speaker Muhlenberg, and Senators John Langdon, Ralph Izard, William Few, and Paine Wingate. The latter has left a description of this dinner. He says, no clergyman being present, Washington himself said grace, on taking his seat. He dined on a boiled leg of mutton, as it was his custom to eat of only one dish. After the dessert a single glass of wine was offered to each of the guests, when the President rose, the guests following his example, and repaired to the drawing-room, each departing at his option without ceremony.

Among the prominent ladies who grouped themselves about Mrs. Washington were Mrs. Jay, Mrs. Adams, Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. Robert Morris, Mrs. Ralph Izard, Mrs. Knox, Lady Mary Watts, Lady Kitty Duer, Mrs. Beekman, Mrs. Provost, Mrs. Livingston, Mrs. Elbridge Gerry, and Mrs. Rufus King. Mrs. Washington, after her first grand entertainment, received every Friday evening from eight until ten o'clock. These levees were arranged on the plan of the English and French drawingrooms, those entitled to the privilege by official station, social position, or established merit and character, coming without special invitation. But full dress was required of all.

Such of our readers as have never had the pleasure or opportunity of examining the great historic painting of Daniel Huntington, will welcome the fac-simile of it presented on another page accompanied by a key to the portraiture. It is an elaborate work of art, representing intense and careful study, and it is eminently a national picture. It may best be described and criticised perhaps in the language of Henry T. Tuckerman :

"The painting represents a reception given by Mrs. Washington during the Presidency of our peerless chief. No specific date is chosen, and some liberties are taken with the chronological facts-as, for instance, the introduction of General Greene, who died shortly previous to this time, but whose prominence in the Revolution makes it desirable to include him in the Republican Court.' Sixty fair women and brave men' occupy the eight feet of canvas. Not one is a lifeless figure; all are disposed easily, all are naturally occupied. The grouping is admirable. As a composition the